
New in Chess 2016/6, The Club Players Magazine, € 11,99, 106 pages, English
Contents of the current issue

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108 pages of the best in chess:
Madrid rivalries
Two chess players: Hou Yifan and Fernando Torres.
NIC's Café
World Championship match headaches, Vladimir Kramnik vs cellist Misha Maisky, Drink like a Grandmaster.
Your Move
Readers' letters from Portugal, Brazil, USA and Finland.
Infographic
How many games should you play in the 6 months prior to playing a World Championship match?
Fair & Square
What Lewis Carrol, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, William Shakespeare, Bart Simpson and others said about chess.
A most wanted win
Alejandro Ramirez reports on the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, one of the finest chess events in the world. Winner Wesley So also claimed the first prize in the Grand Chess Tour. With exclusive game annotations by Wesley So and Anish Giri.
Nigel Short
Caspian Capers: his recent adventures in Iran.
and much more...
Just Checking
On page 106 of the current Jonathan Speelman answers questions by the New in Chess team. New in Chess was so kind to allow ChessBase to republish this interview.
Just checking: Jonathan Speelman

CURRENT ELO: 2526
DATE OF BIRTH: October 2, 1956
PlACE OF BIRTH: London, UK
PlACE OF residence: London, UK
What is your favourite colour?
Blue.
What kind of food makes you happy?
Good veggie food – Veggie Moussaka say – or dips, especially houmous.
And what drink?
Beer or red wine.
Who is your favourite author?
At the moment Ben Aaronovich as in the Rivers of London series.
What was the best book you ever read?
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

What is your all-time favourite movie?
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
What is your favourite TV series?
Almost any decent detective series and Hyperdrive (it helps to be British to appreciate this old series – the HMS Camden Lock attempts to sell British goods to aliens).
Do you have a favourite actor?
Alan Rickman.
And a favourite actress?
Juliet Stevenson.
What music do you like to listen to?
Rock music from the 60’s and 70’s.
Do you have a favourite painter?
Pablo Picasso.
What is your best result ever?
Getting through the Candidates the first time round as far as the semis in 1988 – my first match with Nigel Short.
What was your best game?
Lots of nice ones but sadly mostly ‘unsound’. Kortchnoi-JS, Brussels 1988, was fun – shame about 16.♕c4!.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
1.d4 d6 2.e4 g6 3.Be3 Bg7 4.Nc3 a6 5.a4 Nf6 6.h3 0-0 7.Nf3 d5 8.e5 Ne4 9.Nxe4 dxe4 10.Ng5 c5 11.dxc5 Qc7 12.Qd5 h6 13.Nxe4 Rd8 14.Qa2 Bf5 15.Ng3 Bxc2 16.Bc4 Qa5+ 17.Ke2 Nc6 18.Bxf7+ Kh7 19.f4 Nb4 20.Qe6 Nd5 21.Bd2 Bd3+ 22.Ke1 Qxc5 23.f5 Ne3 24.Qxg6+ Kh8 25.Nh5 Nxf5 26.Nxg7 Qxe5+ 27.Kf2 Qd4+ 28.Ke1 Qh4+ 29.g3 Qe4+ 30.Kf2 Qe2+ 31.Kg1 Be4 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
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Kortschnoj,V | 2640 | Speelman,J | 2625 | 0–1 | 1988 | B08 | World Cup | 6 |
Please, wait...
My best ever move was also unsound – ♘a2?!!? against Psakhis.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
Please, wait...
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 e6 5.Nc3 exd5 6.Qxd5 Qxd5 7.Nxd5 Bd6 8.Nd2 Ne7 9.Nxc4 Nxd5 10.Nxd6+ Ke7 11.Nxc8+ Rxc8 12.g3 Nc6 13.Bg2 Rd8 14.Bg5+ f6 15.Bd2 Rd6 16.0-0 Rad8 17.Rfc1 b6 18.Kf1 a5 19.Be1 g6 20.Rab1 Ndb4 21.a3 21...Na2 22.Rc4 Nd4 23.b3 Nb5 24.Rb2 Nac3 25.a4 Nd1 26.Rb1 Na3 27.Rcc1 Nxb1 28.Rxb1 f5 29.Bb7 g5 30.Ba6 f4 31.Bd3 Rxd3 32.exd3 Rxd3 33.Ke2 Rd5 34.gxf4 gxf4 35.Rc1 Nb2 36.Bc3 Nd3 37.Rg1 Nb4 38.Rg7+ Kf8 39.Bb2 Rd3 0–1 - Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
- Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
- Drag the split bars between window panes.
- Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
- Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
- Create an account to access the games cloud.
Psakhis,L | 2575 | Speelman,J | 2615 | 0–1 | 1987 | D21 | Hastings 8788 | 11 |
Please, wait...
Who is your favourite chess player?
Misha Tal, because not only was he a genius but he also adored chess.

Mihail Tal
Is there a chess book that had a profound influence on you?
As a kid Peter Clarke’s book on Tal and Larsen’s Selected Games were two of my favourites.
What are chess players particularly good at (except for chess)?
Lots of excellent linguists. And pattern recognition in a variety of contexts.
Do chess players have typical shortcomings?
Chess fosters extreme self-reliance, which is a wonderful thing in some ways but can be tiresome too.
Do you have any superstitions concerning chess?
Used to have a battle pen but not now – often tie shoelaces before a game.
Who or what would you like to be if you weren’t yourself?
I’m happy in my skin but if I weren’t a chess player I’d have liked to be a decent mathematician.
Which three people would you like to invite for dinner?
Einstein, Picasso, Marilyn Monroe (not I hope unkind to outnumber such a feisty and clever woman).

Marilyn Monroe (Photo: Wikipedia)
What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
Re chess to be self-reliant – also applies to life generally though harder to implement.
Is there something you’d love to learn?
I wish I were a better linguist.
What is your greatest fear?
The usual things. Dementia must be almost the worst thing that can happen to a person but happily it seems to be exceedingly rare among chess players.
How do you relax?
Crosswords, number puzzles including killer sudokus (the ones where you have to do arithmetic rather than just playing with symbols), computer strategy games (various iterations of Civilization and now Galactic Civilization), reading, flobbering in front of the television and socialising generally.
What is the stupidest rule in chess?
Zero tolerance by a country mile.
Is a knowledge of chess useful in everyday life?
The ability to become good at anything can be translated into different spheres. Chess as such isn’t useful in itself though among other things you have to learn to calculate the consequences of actions, which is a skill which, for example, is sadly missing in many of our glorious politicians.
What is the best thing that was ever said about chess?
Nothing immediately came to mind so I googled. Tartakower’s ‘Chess is a fairy tale of 1001 blunders’ is especially nice.
Published with kind permission from New in Chess (pictures and games added by ChessBase)